Wilson R. Toula Jr. Professor, artist

THE BALTIMORE SUN

Services for Wilson R. Toula Jr., a Baltimore native who had retired as a professor of technology at the Tidewater Community College in Portsmouth, Va., will be held at 10 a.m. tomorrow at the Cvach-Rosedale Funeral Home, 1211 Chesaco Ave.

Mr. Toula, who was 44 and a resident of Suffolk, Va., died Wednesday of cancer at a hospital in Virginia Beach.

He taught at the Portsmouth school from 1978 until 1989, when he retired because of his illness. He conducted courses in various industrial skills he had developed at the request of local industries.

An artist and trained musician, he had created a life-sized metal sculpture, "Song and Dance Man," that is on permanent display at the school.

The graduate of Parkville High School and the University of Maryland at College Park earned a master's degree at the University of Southern California.

From 1972 to 1978, he taught automotive technology to American soldiers in Germany in the overseas program of Central Texas College.

In 1969 he began his vocational teaching career at what was then Harford Junior College. He also taught at Baltimore County's Western Vocational Technical Center.

During his own school years, he worked as a mechanic at Import Motors and at Maryland Volkswagen, where he became body shop foreman.

He was a graduate of the Preparatory Division of the Peabody Institute, where he studied percussion instruments. He later played with the Gettysburg Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Toula acted in television commercials in the Norfolk, Va., area, using slapstick comedy, and he sang bass in church choirs.

He wrote both hymns and humorous songs. He also completed a novel, "Gracious Gift," which is to be published.

Mr. Toula is survived by his wife, the former Virginia Vann; his mother, Josephine Toula-Weber of Havre de Grace; and three sisters, Katherine T. Davis of Baltimore, Josephine T. Carlson of Virginia Beach and Victoria T. Ramina of Towson.